Waymo temporarily suspends all freeway rides“Safety is Waymo’s top priority, both for our riders and everyone we share the road with. We have temporarily paused freeway operations, as we work to integrate recent technical learnings into our software and expect to resume these routes soon,” a Waymo spokesperson confirmed to Nexstar’s KRON on Thursday.The autonomous taxi company said the pause only impacts freeway driving. Surface street operations remain active and unaffected.According to Waymo, the company identified an opportunity to improve performance in specific freeway construction zone configurations and decided to pause operations while it evaluates the issue.AdvertisementAdvertisementWaymo said its vehicles safely navigate construction zones more than 10,000 times each day and described the pause as an opportunity to further improve freeway performance.The company expects freeway routes to resume soon.Earlier this month, Waymo recalled 3,791 robotaxis over a risk associated with the vehicles entering flooded roadways. The company identified a risk that the cars may not stop for flood conditions on higher-speed roadways, according to a report from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.“Entering an untraversable flooded roadway can result in loss of vehicle control,” the NHTSA report stated.AdvertisementAdvertisementCopyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.
